Controlling the Chaos: The 21st Century Comes to Accounts Reconciliation

July 9, 2012

Do you remember, just 20-30 years ago pretty much everything was done manually? Shop tills were little more than oversized calculators, digital payments were all but non-existent and accounts were still reconciled by hand. Nowadays we have clever new POS devices, networked payment systems and yet people are still reconciling accounts by hand! It seems unthinkable that, while we have successfully managed to automate almost all other aspects of retail, we are still expecting our accounts department to spend 2-5 days a month checking and reconciling our accounts, line by line. And the problem is only getting worse. With an influx of different payment methods, such as numerous credit card companies and even mobile phone payments, reconciling your accounts becomes an even harder task. Credit card statements only show a lump sum minus their fee, so it becomes almost impossible to distinguish the correct amount overall, never mind the day-by-day accounts. Yes, you can import bank statements into the mix to help, but this requires duplication and additional accounts and, even then, you do not know which sales days you have been paid for.

What does all this add up to? Chaos.

In this tough economy, the very last thing you need is chaos. If this all sounds too familiar then don’t worry, you’re not alone. Three out of four European businesses with sales over €10m still reconcile their accounts manually and most of these use pen and paper or spreadsheets

Financial Controller, Global fashion retailer

Over the coming weeks and months we will be expanding on exactly how the automatic account reconciliation software works, what it allows you to do, and the numerous benefits it offers our clients.